by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
Amanda Blanc chose insurance from the start. After leaving university in 1989 she joined the Commercial Union graduate training scheme. Since then she’s become Chief Executive of Towergate Retail Division at Towergate Partnership Limited, Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary.
by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
You wouldn’t expect a biochemistry degree to open many doors in financial services but Denise Pollard-Knight has found that her life sciences background has given her an excellent grounding for bioscience investment management. She is now Managing Director of Nomura Phase4 Ventures, a venture capital subsidiary of Asia-based investment bank Nomura, and has just been confirmed as the Financial Services Category winner in the Women in the City awards 2008.
by Sima Matthes (New York City)
Of the six companies among the Fortune 100 ranking for this industry—Boeing (#27), United Technologies (#39), Lockheed Martin (#57), Honeywell (#73) , Northrop Grumman (#76) and General Dynamics (#87)—all have women in the C-suite.
by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
“I don’t think women find it harder to succeed than men,” says Sara Caplan. “I think often they choose a different lifestyle.” And management consultancy is a very specific lifestyle choice. It can involve long hours, being away from home, and being expected to hit the ground running as soon as you arrive at the client site. You can’t have an off-day and you can’t always predict how your working week will plan out. This can make it a difficult choice for women.
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
Annie Morris, Managing Director of Linedata‘s business in North America, graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a joint degree in business and humanities, confident that her skills learned would translate into skills usable in the business world.
“By the time the recession [of the 90s] hit, the only people getting jobs out of school were accountants and engineers, but the skills that I picked up taking those humanities classes have paid off ten-fold. In the humanities program, all the exams were face-to-face with your professor, so even though we were pretty young, we had to be able to clearly express our thoughts and positions in order to get a better grade. Again, that skill is something that can be used and transferred into any role.” She added that the writing requirement of many humanities programs “is not to be underestimated. It is so important to be able to write succinctly to be able to make your point.”
by Ellen Armstrong (New York City)
These days, we look for the bright spots in finance and the economy anywhere we can find them. Fortunately, in the case of the Wall Street Journal’s 50 Women to Watch, there are plenty of bright stars on whom we can focus our attention.
First on the list is Sheila Bair, the Chairwoman of the FDIC, who has been in the headlines of late, between her cogent testimony on Capitol Hill on the roots of the financial crisis and her key role in negotiations of various federal bailout packages. She has been an outspoken advocate of protecting homeowners facing foreclosure, as well as protecting America’s bank accounts in the wake of one bank failure after another.
By Pirkko Juntunen (London)
It is difficult not to fall quickly into clichés such as ‘superwoman’ when describing Laura Palomino de Forbes. In her mid-thirties, married and a mother to a 15-month old daughter, Palomino de Forbes heads up DIAM International’s business development and client services efforts in the EMEA Region from her London office. She has, through hard work and dedication, put DIAM on the map in Europe and Middle East by acquiring new assets of over $3bn in the past four years. Read more
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
With a background in IT and project management, it may surprise some that Cleo Thompson, the head of PwC’s Gender Advisory Council, is the company’s global go-to person for gender diversity. But her personal philosophy may explain it:
“Don’t pigeonhole yourself. Don’t think you are restricted by what you studied. If you are flexible, there are lots of ways to use your skills to make a sideways move, especially within a large organization like PwC.” She added, “I’ve never yet had a job in PwC that someone has done before –I’ve either applied for a newly-created role or I’ve convinced management to craft the position for me.” She advised that she prefers to “drag myself up and bring someone along with me – many of the people I have recruited and trained within PwC have been promoted and gone onto great things.”
by Sima Matthes (New York City)
According to Progressive Grocer, the grocery industry – retail, wholesale and manufacturers – has traditionally had few, if any, females in the C-suites. The article, focusing on the Top Women in Grocery, published earlier this year, celebrated the progress women have made in recent years, “introducing a much-needed female perspective into the upper echelons of food industry management by taking the reins themselves.” To check out their complete list of top women from large and small grocery stores, industry alliances and manufacturers, please go here.
Here is another list–an express line, 10 items only, please—of the movers and shakers in the Fortune 1000 companies in this sector:
Read more
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
Erika Serow joined Bain out of college, looking to consulting to help her figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. Bain sent her to work in London, Sydney, and then Milan, which ultimately allowed her to put her Italian major to good use.
After several years, she left to get her MBA from Stanford Business School, fully expecting to do something other than consulting when she came out; however, it was during school that she realized that she could advance faster in consulting than in any other industry and thus decided to return to Bain after graduation.